‘The City Is Ready’: Seattle Set To Roar For USA’s Crucial World Cup Match

SEATTLE — Basking the glory of a crucial World Cup qualifying win in front of a huge home crowd in America’s best soccer city in 2013, then-U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati vowed that the USA’s men’s national team would schedule more important games. “We’d do that again, sure,” a smiling Gulati said moments after that 2013 victory over Panama in Seattle. They never did. Only a stroke of good fortune brought the national team back the last time it played in Seattle, at the 2016 Copa América Centenario, when Costa Rica’s upset of Colombia sent the tournament hosts to the Pacific Northwest rather than New Jersey for its quarterfinal. It’s been a full decade since the Stars and Stripes played a match in Seattle. That changes on Friday on the biggest stage there is, when the Americans meet Australia in their second match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. “I’m excited to see what it’s like,” midfielder Weston McKennie — who was born and briefly lived in Fort Lewis when his father, a former U.S. Air Force staff sergeant, was stationed there — said before training Thursday morning at the University of Washington. “I’ve never been here with the national team before.” He’s not alone. None of the 26 players on Mauricio Pochettino’s World Cup squad have represented their country at the 69,000-seat Seattle Stadium, not even 38-year-old Tim Ream. That doesn’t mean they don’t know what to expect. Cristian Roldan has made sure of it. The hugely popular U.S. midfielder captains the Seattle Sounders in MLS, for which he’s played since being drafted out of Washington in 2015. ‘I’ve spoken to ‘Roldy’ and other people who’ve said how much of a soccer culture Seattle has,” said veteran U.S. defender Antonee “Jedi” Robinson. “I’m really looking forward to experiencing that first hand.” To be sure, U.S. Soccer’s leadership would love to play in Seattle more often. The national team often struggles to fill NFL venues. When it does, it’s often with fans of the opposing team. That’s not the case here. There are practical reasons why it hasn’t happened. Location is one. Tucked away in the far corner of the continental United States, the Emerald City is about as far away as possible from Europe, where most of the top Americans are employed by their professional clubs. But the biggest roadblock is the artificial playing surface which, like in many other large stadiums in the U.S. and Vancouver Stadium across the Canadian border, has been replaced for this World Cup by a pristine, technologically-advanced “hybrid” natural grass field for the duration of the competition. Friday’s tilt will be the second in Seattle; Belgium and Egypt played to a 1-1 at the downtown home of the Sounders and NFL’s Seahawks on Monday. This moment has been a long time coming for the soccer-crazy metropolis of about 800,000. The original Sounders kicked off in 1974 in the old North American Soccer League and reached two NASL Soccer Bowls, losing the second to the Pelé-led New York Cosmos almost 30 years before returning as an MLS expansion team in 2009. “The city is ready,” Roldan said when asked what exactly he’s told his U.S. teammates about what to expect. “The city is energized. We haven’t had a game here in a long time, and we’ve been desperate to host a World Cup game, a U.S. men’s national team game, so they’re going to feel the crowd, feel the energy, and it’s about feeding off it.” There’s little doubt they will. Pochettino and every U.S. player lauded the heavily pro-USA atmosphere in Los Angeles following last week’s 4-1 World Cup-opening drubbing of Paraguay, crediting them in part for the convincing victory. The Aussies could face an even more hostile, partisan atmosphere on Friday. “Even before the last game, hearing the fans and the national anthem, and people singing along, it gives you goosebumps,” McKennie said. “You’re like, oh s***, it’s time to go. You’re so fired up, because you know that you have people behind you, people that are supporting you. “That’s always an amazing feeling, and always a boost of confidence. Whenever you’re tired, and you hear them cheering even stronger whenever someone makes a tackle, then it’s like another adrenaline rush. So the fans are very important, and I think they’ve done a good job so far to make it feel like we’re playing at home. “Hopefully it’s similar” to the last game, McKennie added. “Or better.”